


Unjustifiable

by zeldadestry



Category: Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles
Genre: POV Second Person, Quadruple Drabble
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-24
Updated: 2009-12-24
Packaged: 2017-10-05 05:57:05
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zeldadestry/pseuds/zeldadestry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jesse tried to be a good soldier.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Unjustifiable

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lurky McLurklurk (ionlylurkhere)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ionlylurkhere/gifts).



Metal crushes you. A bullet destroying your organs, a terminator telling you your child is dead, it's all the same.

It was good to see Derek again, of course it was. It was amazing to be with him in this world of flesh, this world of gardens. You had a chance to spend an hour in paradise together, but that's all it was, an hour. The mission was what mattered.

He was not your Derek, but he was a Derek, and you did love him. He was a good soldier, but not as good as you. He was loyal to John Connor, but you were loyal to John Connor's mission.

Riley never understood that the weeks before her mission began were nothing but a daydream. You were not the woman who combed her hair after each shower or returned her eager, sloppy kisses. If she believed you were her girlfriend, her sister, someone who cared for her above all others, that was her mistake.

She blushed so easily and you would watch the color spread across her cheeks and wonder how she could have lasted as long as she did in the tunnels. She would have died anyway. If you hadn't taken her in, if you had left her where you found her, she would be just as dead. Jesus. Is this what you're reduced to? Is this how you're going to defend yourself?

You don't need to defend yourself. You are a soldier and you did what was necessary for the greater good. You are fighting a fucking war! You are fighting a war that could end not just one human but all humans. What is the fate of one person when compared to that?

You were stronger. She tried to kill you but you stopped her. Why? Was your life worth more than hers? Of course not. The mission was what mattered.

She liked to lay her head in your lap. She was a girl. It was why you chose her. Despite everything she'd seen, known, she was still young, just like John Connor would be.

She had the softest hair. Sometimes, in the middle of the night, you'd reach out to grasp a tendril and stroke it against your cheek.

She didn't know how to swim. You had to teach her. She trusted you. She listened so closely to everything you had to say, lips slightly parted.


End file.
